Mark Hamill is still angry at 'Star Wars' fans for reaction to the prequels

Mark Hamill is one of the biggest supporters of Star
Wars, and Star Wars fans, that's out
there today. He seems to absolutely love the passion that
people have for those movies. However, there is one place where
he does take issue with the ardor of fandom. He's still upset
with the vitriol that was thrown at the Star
Wars prequels, particularly the anger that was hurled
at the young Anakin Skywalker from Star Wars: The Phantom Menace.

"I couldn't believe some of the things they wrote about the
prequels, you know. I mean really, beyond 'I didn't like it'.
I'm still angry about the way they treated Jake Lloyd. He was
only ten years old, that boy, and he did exactly what George
wanted him to do. Believe me, I understand clunky dialog.:

The fans general dislike of the Star
Wars prequels has become a legend of its own over the
last two decades. Whether it was the plot's focus on galactic
politics instead of smugglers and Jedi, CGI characters with
terrible dialogue and offensive accents, or meaningless
statements about the coarseness of sand, there is a lot that
people don't like about the prequels. But back when there was
only one prequel movie to bash, the two parts that received the
most negative response were clearly Jar Jar Binks and Jake Lloyd the actor
playing the child Anakin Skywalker.

Mark Hamill doesn't defend the "clunky dialogue." After all,
it's not like the original trilogy is completely without its
own terrible lines. But, as Hamill points out
to Vulture, Jake Lloyd was a kid doing what
his director told him to do. The man who played Luke Skywalker was at least a
teenager when he took on the starring role in Star
Wars and we have to assume he was criticized by
some for his own performance, but being a bit older he was
able to deal with it.

Mark Hamill also takes issue with the
"you ruined my childhood" crowd of prequel haters. There's
nothing wrong with not liking the movies, but the actor feels
that we should all be able to just leave it at that.

In the end, Mark Hamill has a point. Movies aren't made by
one person. There were numerous people who made numerous
decisions that combined to create the Star
Wars prequels. If you didn't like them, there's
plenty of blame you can spread around evenly. And it's
probably best to try to avoid blaming the 10-year-old. It's
clear that Jake Lloyd had to deal with a lot of
crap growing up that nobody else could begin to understand.
While it's too late to prevent all that, it wouldn't be awful
to stop making it worse.

Besides, if you didn't like the Star
Wars prequels, you probably disliked all three and
the 10-year-old didn't even influence the two he wasn't in,
so clearly the issue was not him.